Ely Cathedral

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mother Superior <mothersuperiorohr@googlemail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 7:21 AM
Subject: Re: Ely Cathedral
To: Alan Hargrave <A.Hargrave@cathedral.ely.anglican.org>
Cc: bishop.huntingdon@ely.anglican.org, M.Chandler@cathedral.ely.anglican.org, bischof_ralph@jesus-liebt-dich.info

Dear Alan,

God bless you for all that you do to keep the most wonderful sacrament of the mystery of Christ's passion alive. I read your paper that you wrote for Westcott House, and I liked especially this passage, as I have heard them from the mouth of Our Lord, too:

'The Lady Chapel is the place where we see most clearly the damage done during the reformation period. Statues of saints were removed, paint stripped off walls, windows broken and, as you can still see, even the heads of the small figures in the alcoves were smashed off. It is a place of brokenness, reminding us of the brokenness of our world and the brokenness in our own lives.  It also reminds us of Christ's body, broken for us on the cross.'

 Lord God, through Jesus you are no stranger to betrayal, rejection, pain, suffering and a cruel death on the cross. We lift before you those who suffer and whose lives are broken and we lift before you the brokenness of our own lives. Lift us from despair to hope, from death to life, though Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You may wish to light a candle for those on your heart who are broken. 

Praying and pouring out our hearts in repentance; lighting a candle as a prayer; to be mindful of our neighbour to go the extra-mile in hardest labour and in loving-kindness, so that all poor and needy can be fed with the living word and dwell in God's house in Jesus' holy truth and that of His holy family is our daily bread as the one holy nation of God, and to me Jesus is the truth, the way and the life.

At the last supper He gave His apostles the key to heaven in the most wonderful sacrament as the memorial of His passion, so that we can come to life in the mystery of His holy truth and become whole as a holy family by dwelling with Him in His very presence that He grants us in His uncorrupted gifts.

And to Jesus numbers were never important - you know the scriptures better than I do,  and there were many examples of how He would go for the rescue of a single soul that would from then on return home to God through Him. God gave every soul free will for a certain amount of time, and Jesus surrendered His powers to give man a chance to become like Him in suffering and in loving their neighbours by making their free choice wisely and to the glory of God, and to use their voice to stand up for the oppressed and to feed the needy and to protect them from the greedy and seedy, who have from the beginning of time and especially of the church tried to undermine His spiritual church from within with their secret societies.

But Jesus is near and this time He will make all take up their responsibility and He will ask everybody from face to face, what they have done to defend His holy Eucharist and to save from suffering and from the devil and the golden calf and cow the human race. I know that because He already asked me, and I can tell you from that experience that He won't have any further delay and no more excuses of political correctness and number juggling. He wanted His church to be a living temple, and the truly devoted have always given their all, like St Etheldreda, and she would be the first one to say to you that as long as there is a mouth to feed and a roof needed for the poor, then feed them and give them shelter in the Name of Jesus for free, so that they can experience in their lives the effects of His redemption in our acts of compassion and our lives in the sacraments, so that they themselves share their God-given gifts for free with others, who come their way also in the Name of Jesus.

And Jesus lived by this principle and so did His apostles. They gave up all they owned and followed Him, and He also had rich disciples, who surrendered their money and property to His ministry anonymously, and one of them was Mary Magdala, who has been treated throughout church history appallingly. And as much as I like to see that there is a procession alive in the cathedral, it should be a Corpus Christi procession and not for any other. As St Etheldreda would not have liked personal fuss about herself but was devoted to Christ's sacraments and she and St Chad, f.ex., as you well know, did give their lives and many sacrifices that man one day will know to God's glory.

In this context I find the painting of St Etheldreda very interesting, as it instantly reminded me of another one, which I add for you, and it made me smile as I know now that the holy truth of Christ's family is in His safe hands, and no longer hidden away, as Jesus Himself blessed the nails of that coffin from heaven.

Numbers and figures were always the cloak of the golden cow and calf with the help of the beast, who wants to sell out Christ's church from the lurch, and even St Etheldreda would rather have Christ's spiritual church live happily ever after rather in a simple cave or in people's homes than in a church that is being robbed of its true ownership and is in danger of becoming a crumbling sandcastle with all the wrong books and without the holy truth any longer in the monastery bookshelf.

What is next: Satan with his elves officially moving into the sanctuary and exchanging chocolate gifts with the Easter bunny even out of season to commit yet another act of spiritual high treason? People, who see a cathedral on the BBC abused for a fair cannot develop any sense of holiness and certainly do not get any message at all about Christ's suffering and that of His holy family.

And choirboys with an angelic voice, which is a God-given gift, must also not sell it out to the highest bidder, and, quite frankly, the music and film and media industry, in which I worked for two decades before I totally committed to my religious life is rather desecrating sacred music through their videos that only ever present the boys in all the wrong light and it is the same old lame game and strategy of the devil to defile, where he could to dress in smoke and mirror his golden calf and cow, and meanwhile they made look Jesus like the scarecrow in many a war that He never wanted as He made it very clear that His path is free of wrath and only of truth and loving-kindness and peace.

My parents were not really active churchgoers, and they were even Lutherans but it did not prevent me from going to church from the age of seven on my own, as I had heard God calling me as a mother, a singer and writer and teacher and as a nun, and God also had told me that I sometimes have to say things that people, including my parents, would not like but that I had to speak them out nonetheless in His name or my punishment would be of worse than that of my parents, and, believe me, my parents could be very severe in their punishment, although I was an obedient child. When I said to my parents I want to be a nun and also a wife and a mother, they said, 'there is no such thing', but I replied: 'Yes, there is. God told me so, and he also said that  even Jesus had a wife but the church won't tell people that.' They just shook their heads but let me go to church and I started a little society with two of my neighourhood friends and I brought a red rose to the first meeting, where we all gave a vow to do good things for our neighbours. And we did: we visited the elderly, helped with their cleaning and shopping, babysitting, playing music in nursing homes etc.

And I learned quickly that what I heard inside me was always the right voice that helped me to make the safe choice as it led me home to God and to Jesus in peace. It was only in phases, where I did not act on what I heard because all those around me could not be bothered to lead a holy life, or because I felt I had to go down to the pit to get at least as many souls out as possible in my own way in the world of smoke and mirror and I taught thousands of singers, actors and tv-presenters and people from any background to use their voices in fullness and in harmony with their soul and their hearts but I did not tell them yet that they can only totally find home even in themselves, if they devote their lives to God and lead a life free of sin in the spirit of God's commandments, that Jesus even summed up in His simple law. And to me that was never just the last straw, and when I committed a sin unintentionally, then I confessed them to God and bore my penance in grace. 

And my parents led also a holy life, having started as a young couple and going into marriage before God in celibacy, and selflessly dedicating their lives to their family and in the years before my dear father passed away he started to repent that he had not given God the same attention and bore all his suffering with utmost grace and in humility and in obedience to God, and my mother was there for him without fail for 48 years.

As soon as I was confirmed in the Lutheran church with 13 my calling to become a holy woman became ever stronger, and even my friends at school and my family called me, 'the nun'. I felt that the sacrament in the Lutheran church was dead, it was a shared meal, but without the holy spirit that I witnessed in the holy faces that shone so much in God's light, when they passed by our house at the Corpus Christi procession and from 13 I used my coming of age in my spiritual life and started after consulting my Catholic RE teachers to attend mass every morning before school in the cathedral in Muenster. I had to get up really early, but I loved to go and to feel alive in these cold and dark walls and to simply live in the sacrament but I did not formally convert as God told me that the rule of celibacy was flawed by man as he only ever wanted deacons, priests and bishops to give that vow voluntarily and if they felt inclined to marry because he had joined two souls together in heaven, then man must not stand in the way of this most holy union, as it is the foundation for holy children being raised on the earth.

And so my way eventually led me to London, and God led me to live in a house next to an Anglo-Catholic church, and before I had even moved into our new flat I took my little baby daughter and went instantly inside that church, and met the priest, Fr James Westcott. We started a church choir and my daughter was baptized in there and two days later I finally got confirmed by Bishop Broadhurst into the one holy Catholic and apostolic church that now sadly will be sold out for good, it seems.

I did offer my order to the Anglo-Catholic church but I only encountered silence but I will stay on in the Church of England as long as I can although my order does not accept women priests nor female bishops, as that is the end of the apostolic succession, and I am deeply saddened that Anglo-Catholic priests under the age of fifty have accepted bribes to make them leave quietly...

The argument of women priests on ground of equality is also wrong as Christ's body was that of a man, and not of a woman, and that is why He entrusted the blessing of the gifts to the men, and not to the women. We as women have a multitude of gifts bestowed upon us, but even a deaconess should use it for nurturing the parish life, by visiting people,  praying, cooking,  nursing and by raising children and  teaching and offering all our skills for free and so forth but I would be horrified of the presence of a woman in the inner sanctuary.

My bishop, Ralph Napierski, set up an independent Catholic church that is in union with the Roman Catholic church but allows our order to live in the same way as I do in the Church of England as an Anglican-Catholic order, meaning that all our deacons, priests and bishops can marry, or live in voluntary celibacy and the same applies to laity, and our children are being raised as holy. We have no salaries, all of us work in various ways and give all that we have again to God's glory and feed the needy, are lending a helping hand to our neighbours in all ways in the Name of Jesus Christ, and our neighbours see us lead by example and start to do their bits for their community. We publish all our writings for free on the internet and give out our recordings, paintings and books etc. also for free. God always provides us with the means for the day, and we might not know, what is around the corner or hits us next but we simply surrender all our anxieties and fears and especially doubts to God.

My point is, this cathedral in Muenster, where I was able to totally humbly take part in a most quiet way by attending mass every morning before school and where I could go and pray, whenever I wanted without asking or without presenting a pass there were also thousands of tourists but they were respectfully and quietly walking about never disturbing the prayers of others and there was not a barrier to enter by a ticket office or the obligation to present a pass. I have seen it happening in all the cathedrals that charge money that they loose their very purpose. 

We must trust in Christ to provide the only answers for the future and survival of our cathedrals not in the methods of the golden cow, and believing in figures is the way, I am sorry to say, not of Christ. And if the ways as we know it fail, then we must listen carefully to His instructions, but listen and act on His path we must, or we pay dearly for it. And I can safely and simply say this: He is near and He will have it His way this time, and that is the way of giving, not of taking, and free of the evil snake's hiss and free of any Judas kiss. He made me go His way, and without delay, and I know He does with others, too, as, fortunately, there were always around uncompromising in the ways of God, sisters and brothers, children, fathers and mothers, who try their best to lead a life in holiness, and they do constantly even the slightest sin to God and Jesus in utmost obedience and humility confess. 

God bless you!

Eliora

Mother Eliora,
Mother Superior OHR
http://abbeyoftheholyrose.webs.com/welcome.htm.
http://www.myspace.com/akathistos
CHRISTUS REX - TO HIM BE EMPIRE AND GLORY FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 8:29 AM, Alan Hargrave <A.Hargrave@cathedral.ely.anglican.org> wrote:

Dear Mother Eliora

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

Before we started charging in the 1980's, we had a large sign which said: 'It costs £5 per person to maintain this beautiful building. Please give generously.' Unfortunately, the average donation was just 17p! At that time the roof was leaking and chunks of plaster falling off the ceiling, making it dangerous. It was a choice between starting to charge or closing the building to the public altogether.

 

We wish we didn't have to charge and have sought to offset charging in a number of ways:

We don't charge on a Sunday

We don't charge before 9am or after 5pm (though we are open from 7am – 7.30pm)

We offer free passes to local residents and to church members across the diocese.

The West end of the cathedral can be accessed free of charge, so that people are freely able to pray in St Catherine's chapel, access the font, labyrinth and prayer net, see down the Nave and sit quietly in contemplation, which many people do.

If people say they have just come in to pray, we let them in without charge.

 

On the subject of your community visiting here, I am not making a special exemption. We have many groups who come for pilgrimage tours, for which there is no charge. This week, for example, I have conducted pilgrimage tours for a parish in Essex and residents from house for homeless people in Cambridge. We would not be treating you any different from any of the many different sorts of people who come here on pilgrimage.

 

As you rightly say 'A house of God needs to be a home foremost spiritually, to the praise and glory of God, and for Christ's memorial, and to teach and preach the living word and to bring Christ's holy truth to life in the sacraments and in a holy community that is nourished alone by His daily bread.' The Liber Eliensis, a 12^th Century document about Etheldreda's community, speaks of her Rule in these terms: 'They all lived by one and the same Rule which was: outstanding virtue and the maintenance of the beauty of the house of God with all watchfulness.' Within the difficult financial constraints which we face, and acknowledging that we are very far from that ideal, that is what we are honestly seeking to do.

 

I attach a paper I wrote a year or two ago which describes how we are seeking to help visitors engage with the gospel.

 

With very best wishes

 

God bless you

 

Alan

 

 

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From: Mother Superior [mailto:mothersuperiorohr@googlemail.com]
Sent: 10 March 2010 20:34
To: Alan Hargrave
Subject: Re: Ely Cathedral

 

Dear Alan,

 

I thank you for your time and for your kindness to reply to my letter and to ease my concerns, and for trying hard to reach out to people, especially in these times of hardship, and I can see your point but at the same time I feel strongly about any kind of membership fee especially in Christ's name, and especially about charging an entrance fee to any house of God, and you said yourself it is mainly not the worshippers coming through the doors but tourists and all sorts of groups.

 

I naturally agree that Ely Cathedral is a magnificent cathedral but through this very approach it is in grave danger to become a mere edifice for social and commercial gatherings, a trend that is happening sadly almost anywhere.

 

It is good to reach out creatively and especially to those, who have lost their path home to God but how can they find back home through Jesus, when HIs very church is being sold out. He asked from all of his disciples to give up property and money and they walked humbly and in obedience and humility, and you might recall that St Chad was declining the offer even of a horse, when it was offered to him

 

I have based my rule on the early Celtic Catholic church and we do not own any property as an order, we do not charge any membership fee and our members share all their manifold God-given gifts and professional skills for free in their local communities and wherever we are being called to, and our priests do not charge any fees either, and neither does our Bishop. We are poor as Christ commanded us to be to be able to lead by example and share freely, what we have ourselves freely, and we are helping each other and our neighbours in all ways. 

 

We are also helping in our local parishes in all ways we can for free,  but we do pay tithe to our local churches.

 

A house of God needs to be a home foremost spiritually, to the praise and glory of God, and for Christ's memorial, and to teach and preach the living word and to bring Christ's holy truth to life in the sacraments and in a holy community that is nourished alone by His daily bread, and even the thought alone grieves me that Ely Cathedral might join a long line of cathedrals that are in grave danger to become just another edifice of the devil and the Babylonian whore as an entrance fee to a house of God is the kiss of death for its spiritual life.

 

It is very kind of you to invite us but I would not want to be treated any differently from other visitors or impose on you as I know, how busy you must be but I thank you for your very generous offer.

 

God bless you!

 

Eliora

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mother Eliora,
Mother Superior OHR
http://abbeyoftheholyrose.webs.com/welcome.htm.
http://www.myspace.com/akathistos
CHRISTUS REX - TO HIM BE EMPIRE AND GLORY FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN

On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 5:07 PM, Alan Hargrave <A.Hargrave@cathedral.ely.anglican.org> wrote:

Dear Mother Eliora

 

Thank you for your letter sent to the Bishop of Ely regarding the Antiques Fair held at Ely Cathedral. Our diocesan bishop recently retired and your email has therefore been forwarded to me. I am sorry you found the programme so distasteful.

 

We try our best to make Ely Cathedral a place where all are welcome and where cultural activities, as well as worship, can take place. Around 200,000 people visit Ely Cathedral each year. Most do not come to worship. Ely Cathedral, as I am sure you know, has a wonderful history, dating back to St Etheldreda in the 8^th century. However, it costs us over £3000 a day to maintain the fabric and worship of the Cathedral. In order to raise that money we have found it necessary to charge an entrance fee for tourists and also to hold a number of fund-raising events each year. However, we do not believe that we are compromising the integrity of the Cathedral's mission. Rather we are encouraging all sorts of people to come here who would never normally step inside a church. Our experience is that exposure on TV encourages people to visit and, once here, they have the opportunity to engage spiritually.

 

Our aim is that everyone who comes here should have the opportunity to encounter Christ among us, no matter why they have come. In that regard we have a regular team of volunteer chaplains and a lay 'Ministry of Welcome' team. We have provided many opportunities around the cathedral for visitors to engage spiritually and have regular prayers on the hour, as well as our normal services.

  

I would be delighted if you and members of your community would consider visiting Ely Cathedral as our guests, for a pilgrimage tour, which I would be happy to organize for you.

 

Once again, I am sorry you felt so distressed about the programme. I can only assure you that we are doing everything in our power to keep the cathedral in good order so that it might remain as a centre of worship and mission, to the glory of God, for centuries to come.

 

With very best wishes

 

God bless

 

Alan

 

Revd Canon Dr Alan Hargrave

Canon Missioner

Ely Cathedral

 

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______________________________________________________________________
Ely Cathedral Chapter Office is located at The College, Ely, Cambs, CB7 4DL.
Ely Cathedral Shop Ltd is a registered company in England and Wales. Company No: 01988081
Registered Office: Richmond House, Broad Street, Ely, Cambs, CB7 4AH

The information included in this email is of a confidential nature and is intended only for the addressee.

If you are not the intended addressee, any disclosure, copying or distribution by you is prohibited and may be unlawful. Disclosure to any party other than the addressee, whether inadvertent or otherwise is not intended to waive privilege or confidentiality. If you are not the intended recipient, please advise the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy.

The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the (CSi) Cathedral's Secure Intranet Anti-Virus service supplied by MessageLabs Email Security System. On leaving the CSi this email was certified virus free.
Communications via the CSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for legal purposes.
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